The man who sees beauty in a dry bark and a wet leaf

 “Photography has been with me since my school days. It became an obsession. But my photography was no beanstalk. It took time to grow”, that was VS Asokan narrating to fellow members of PSM, the first chapter of his love affair with photography.

Despite being a law graduate, his “soul was always in photography”. So he co-founded ‘The Innovators’, a studio in Chennai to serve the ad industry. Soon the venture developed into a fully  accredited Ad agency , ‘Chhaya Advertising Pvt. Ltd.’. "The agency people carry the client’s brand,  product and brief in their head",  he recalls. Advertising photography is restrictive and has to satisfy the art director, the copywriter and the client.

Asokan regained his artistic freedom by selling off the Agency and plunging into photography for self expression and pleasure. But one visitor to his Bangalore exhibition bought 15 of his frames in one sweep and commissioned him for more, to decorate a prestigious Hotel project in Bangalore. For three months, Asokan got busy shooting, mostly in his backyard.

“Tell me the negatives”, he genuinely challenges the audience, as he presents

his pictures that are also sign posts of a life going strong at 80.   The pictures  combine an artist’s sense of composition with advertising’s  result orientation. The many-layered meanings of his frames are spelt through contrast of shapes, colours, textures and tenses (Past and Present, Today and Tomorrow).  Many of his crops are unconventional, revealing a philosopher’s irreverence for convention.   He is unafraid of fully saturated colours but can also pull off soft and wistful, out-of-focus compositions. Asokan has shot his amazing pictures with uncomplicated inexpensive cameras, and does not swoon over high-end gear. “I mostly use just one exposure, f/5.6", he says disarmingly, and with a suppressed half chuckle. He has no compunctions about manipulating pictures. Result matters.

“Colour or B&W?”, someone ventures.”Should Pather Panchali have been made in colour, or Lawrence of Arabia in black and white?”,  Asokan answers with a question.

The last quote on Asokan’s exquisite photo album is from Confucius: “There is beauty in everything, but not everyone sees it”.  Apt for a consummate artist ,  who effortlessly finds beauty in a dry tree bark and graphic perfection in a tilted orange tower chosen by a bird to sit awhile. 

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Article Author: Thomas T Abraham 

An Evening with Craig Semetko (UNPOSED)

    What happens when an accomplished comedy writer and stage performer pursues photography as “an amateur hobbyist” for seven years, becomes a celebrated photographer and passing through Chennai, agrees to spend an evening with members of PSM?

Answer: A fantastic evening of learning, motivation and entertainment.

semetko.com      Facebook

    Craig Semetko, the celebrated American street photographer is currently in India, shooting for a photographic book on the country. This closely follows his year and a half long project to capture “the extraordinary cultural diversity of the United States.” Sharing photographs from both these projects as also his book titled UNPOSED, Craig drew out lessons, unabashedly acknowledging the influence of heavy weights Cartier-Bresson and Elliott Erwitt, on his work.

Craig’s mission statement is ‘to provide the elements of an interesting story in a single well-composed frame’. Craig has a purist’s inclinations.   Craig prefers black & white. (“Colour shows clothes of the humans, B&W reveals their souls”). No staged photos for him, or cropping. 

Criag Semetko Classics via google images

Elliott Erwitt calls Craig “the essential photographer, the one who sees what others could not have seen”. Craig catches and frames the right moment often through anticipation, using human psychology and the power of observation. Add to it his “highly developed sense of the absurd and ironic” and you have photos that are hilarious, side by side with occasional captures of pathos and melancholy – some of these moods created without any human element in the frame.

Craig has a way with words. And a scriptwriter's instinct for impact. Sample these:

• “It is much easier to ask forgiveness than permission”, on taking permission of the subjects before shorting.
• “Good photography will have the DIE factor: D for design, I for information, E for emotion”.
• “If you like something, shoot it straight away. Nothing is the same ever again.”

  
So true, Craig!

About the Author :   

Thomas T Abraham  (A Nomadic Indian).  Exiting from a corporate job has given him greater opportunities for self-expression through travel, photography and writing. He enjoys sharing his knowledge and supporting causes that deserve it.   www.thomastabraham.in

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